Humble pie: Yeah I was wrong, Wiens couldn’t hang with Lance after all. Not a surprise, really, but wished it could’ve been a closer race. Sounds like Dave is hanging it up, so next year’s race (assuming Lance defends as he says he will and Levi can keep from breaking something) will be between Lance and Leipheimer. I’m going with Double L! Stay tuned!

Cyclelicious: Empire Grade Road closed due to fire. Richard is a roadie but notes the smoke covers huge mtb sections of the UC-Santa Cruz campus, Wilder Ranch and back down to Henry Cowell State Park. Let’s hope the disruption was only temporary. There’s not much else for mountain biking in that section of the Santa Cruz range.

Sam Hill and Emmeline Ragot took top honors in the Canadian Open Downhill…with Seattle-based Evil’s Steve Smith taking a bronze. Smith has been putting in some standout results this season after signing with Evil, which was at Crankworx showing off some cool hardware. More later…

We close with a tantalizing thought. Jill Kintner creamed Emmeline Ragot in the “mini-Downhill” Grand Slalom at Crankworx. If Jill had run the Canadian Open Downhill and presumably won, it would’ve given her 3 golds (as well as a silver) for Crankworx 2009! We continue to suspect Jill (maybe nudged by BF Bryn Atkinson) will enter downhill comps some day soon…